Douglas Ramsey (Earth-616)
| Speaker = Cypher | HistoryText = Douglas Aaron Ramsey was born to Philip and Sheila Ramsey. Doug was a friend of Kitty Pryde, the X-Man Ariel, who he met after she moved to Westchester County to join Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Both shared an interest in computers and video games which brought them closer together. When both Professor Xavier and Emma Frost discovered Doug was a mutant, they both attempted to recruit him for their respective schools. Frost offered him a scholarship to the Massachusetts Academy in hope of inducting him into her adolescent Hellions, to serve the Hellfire Club's sinister needs. Doug began spending time with Kitty and together they hacked Project Wideawake files. Pryde accompanied Ramsey on a trip to the Academy for his final interview. Believing Emma to be in a coma, Kitty still didn't trust Frost at all due to past experiences and this time was no different. The White Queen captured Kitty and she was later saved by the New Mutants. Ramsey ended up not attending the school. While Douglas became a friend to the New Mutants children, they kept their mutant powers and costumed personas from him. However, one night when the New Mutants were alone in the mansion, the techno-organic alien, Warlock, arrived and battled the New Mutants in the confusion that erupted. The mutants asked Ramsey for help in communicating with the alien, and revealed their secrets to him. Douglas succeeded in talking with Warlock, and both the alien and Ramsey soon joined the team. Ramsey chose the codename Cypher, as his mutant ability allowed him to decipher codes and languages. Warlock and Cypher shared a close bond, often sticking close together in battle. Doug often felt useless in battle, even though his powers often came more in handy then others. New Mutants Doug's first mission with the New Mutants was saving the life of international rock star Lila Cheney from the Vrakanin, where Doug single-handily saved the Earth by deciphering the instructions to a damaged stargate before an overload. Doug next traveled to Muir Island to battle Legion. After learning that a former New Mutant, Karma, was in-fact alive, the New Mutants decided to rescue her. After Doug tracked Karma to Madripoor, then Cairo, the New Mutants were joined by Storm and all of them were possessed by Karma, save Mirage, Warlock, and Magik. After Karma was released of the Shadow King, who was controlling her, the Shadow King possessed Doug next and Karma defeated him on the Astral Plane. Later, Amora the Enchantress kidnapped the New Mutants to Asgard. While attempting to escape, Magik used her teleportation discs and the Enchantress' magics affected the destination and the New Mutants were separated through time and space. Doug ended-up in Vanaheim and after reuniting with his team, Warlock began forming around Doug to become a suit of armor to protect Doug. After the New Mutants defeated Amora, the X-Men arrived to assist them in rescuing Storm. Following Magneto After their adventure in Asgard, the New Mutants found themselves under the guidance of a new teacher, Magneto. Magneto was very protective of Doug, a fact that infuriated Doug, because he believed Magneto thought him inferior. The New Mutants, later, were obliterated from existence by the virtually omnipotent Beyonder and then recreated by him, angry that Magik refused his 'gift' of her power being transferred to Kitty (Shadowcat), to use them as guinea pigs. In being recreated, the New Mutants, somehow, lost much of the proficiency in using their superhuman powers that they had learned at Prof. Xavier's school. Under the psychic influence of the Hellion, named Empath, Magneto closed the school and sent the New Mutants to study with the Hellions' teacher, the White Queen. When Magneto realized he was tricked into transferring the New Mutants, he attempted to confront Emma and was attacked by the Avengers. After rescuing Magneto from the Avengers, he and Emma worked together to cure the children of the trauma at the hands of the Beyonder and they returned to Prof. Xavier's mansion. After the return of Sunspot, the New Mutants decided to even the score with Empath, seeing as how Magneto would not, and terrorized him, until Doug stated that revenge would make them no better than Empath. The team went-on to defeat Legion on Muir Island, then, rescued Psylocke from Mojo and Spiral. After finding that Psylocke was being mentally controlled by Mojo, Doug found himself capable of merging physically and mentally with Warlock, so that they could operate as a gestalt. This developed a danger of permanently infecting Ramsey with the Transmode Virus and permanently merging the two so that they would not want to revert to normalcy. After Pyslocke was freed from her mind control, she freed the others as well. Psylocke accompanied the New Mutants back to the school and Doug began a crush on her. The New Mutants, later, battled the X-Men after they had been turned to the X-Babies by Mojo, until they were broken of their brainwashing and defeated the spineless one, Mojo. During this mission and after, the New Mutants would rotate between their graduation uniforms and their standard New Mutants training uniforms. During the massacre of the Morlocks by the Marauders, the New Mutants were charged with aiding the wounded. After Illyana Rasputin and Xi'an Coy Manh left to check on Xi'an's younger siblings, the New Mutants joined them and Warlock's father, Magus, attacked. Illyana quickly teleported them all to Limbo and shortly after, Magus also appeared on Limbo. Illyana sent the New Mutants to Scotland's past where they aided Scottish King, Robert the Bruce. While attempting to go back to Limbo, again, Illyana accidentally separated the New Mutants through time and space. Cypher, Cannonball, Mirage, and Warlock were sent to a future where mutants ruled and former teammates, Sunspot and Magma, were chief arbitrators, who oppressed humans and even kidnapped their mutant children. They were captured and about to be brainwashed, until Illyana returned with Professor Xavier, Lilandra Neramani, and Binary and took them back to the planet that the Professor was on with the Starjammers. When Merging their forms once more, Cypher tapped into Warlock’s own DNA in order to learn how to "re-code" it. While the rest of the New Mutants distracted Magus, Cypher and Warlock re-wrote the Magus' DNA, effectively reducing him to infancy. Upon returning home, the New Mutants were forced to chase Warlock and Impossible Man, who were having a contest to see who the better sentient lifeform was through shape changing and teleporting around the world. Upon returning to the School for Gifted Youngsters, the New Mutants were, all, grounded by Magneto and not allowed to leave the grounds. Doug began to show slight signs of becoming infected by the Transmode Virus, due to prolonged use of Warlock and himself merging for protection. After a soccer game became too physical, Sunspot ended-up giving Cannonball a concussion and, after the rest of the New Mutants began to chastise him, Sunspot ran away, feeling he was a danger to his team. Warlock left after Sunspot and this left all of the team feeling deeply guilty and worried about Warlock and Sunspot's whereabouts. To calm them down, Magneto dressed them elegantly and they all attended a Hellfire Club event, where Doug was approached by Tarot to comfort his loneliness, but sent her off crying. Doug was, next, approached by Roulette and asked if he was a geek or a player. Doug, wanting to impress Roulette, answered a player and won a game of poker, by using his mutant powers, for the first time, to read facial expressions. After winning a nice amount, Doug was, next, found by the New Mutants, drunk, in bed with Roulette. While the tensions arose, Doug believed that Roulette had used her mutant power to win the poker games and struck her, a fact that raised tension between the two groups, until Cannonball suggested another duel between the two teams. The duel was for both teams to hunt down the person responsible for selling a member of the Hellfire Club a forged statue of Selene and the losers apologize, publicly, for any insults and take the rap for any trouble with their teachers before sunrise. After having Illyana spy on the Hellions, through a scrying glass on Limbo, the New Mutants learned that Viper and the Silver Samurai were behind the forgery and decided to intercept the villains, before the Hellions. Unknown to the New Mutants, Thunderbird assumed that they would spy on the Hellions and led them to the henchmen of the villains, while the Hellions captured Viper and Silver Samurai, winning the competition. Upon returning to the Hellfire Club, the New Mutants were shocked to learn that Xi'an had left the team to find her siblings. Magneto allowed the children a night off of their punishment and the New Mutants attended a album release party of Lila, where they battled Raek and a group of aliens. Death by the Ani-Mator After hearing of an animal creature that was being mistreated after capture, the New Mutants abducted Bird Brain in a contest with the Hellions and, after returning home victorious, Magma decided to return to the Massachusetts Academy. Initially jealous of the attention that Wolfsbane showed Bird-Brain, Doug refused to communicate with the creature, until Magneto threatened to return him to the authorities and Doug began to speak with Bird-Brain, to save Rahne Sinclair the loss. After the New Mutants took Bird-Brain to the mall and taught him simple language, Bird-Brain watched a television show of animals in captivity and decided to return home. The New Mutants followed and were captured, by the Ani-Mator and his Ani-Mates, and learned that Ani-Mator worked for Cameron Hodge, PR man for the mutant hunters X-Factor and Commander of anti-mutant group The Right. During the battle, Doug wanted to help his friends, but felt that his powers could not help and if he tried to fight with his hands, he would get in the way. When the Ani-Mator aimed a gun at Wolfsbane, Doug couldn't stand still and hurled into the way, getting shot twice by the Ani-Mator. Un-noticed by Wolfsbane, she asked him not to dive into battle like that and Doug's last words were "Don't be mad Rahne... I'll never... do it... again.", before falling into endless sleep. After the battle, Doug's body was found, while the Ani-Mator confessed at shooting while trying to shoot Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane blamed herself and stated that she should have died instead. Magik, in anger, threw Ani-Mator into limbo, where he was eaten alive by demons. Doug's death and noble sacrifice, saving the Ani-Mates and Rahne Sinclair, also drove Magneto far away from his students, as he blamed himself for his death as well as Homo Sapiens. Resurrection on New Mutants X-Men Squad Eli Bard, a servant of Selene, tracked down the body of Douglas with the aid of the reanimated Caliban and reanimated him as well, with the aid of the Transmode Virus. Alongside the resurrected Hellions, Cypher infiltrated Utopia and, while the Hellions went after Emma, he targeted Magma, as commanded by Selene. After successfully beating Magma comatose and a lengthy battle involving the New Mutants and the Hellions, Douglas was freed from Bard's control by Warlock wielding Magik's Soulsword and rejoined his former teammates. Amara Aquilla was initially scared of the sight of Doug, until he whispered a language he created, just for her to understand, in her ear and she hugged him. After the return of the mutant messiah, Hope Summers, and Cable to the mainstream timeline, Bastion and the his members of the Human Council attacked her tirelessly. Cyclops ordered the New Mutants to attack one of Hodge's Right facilities, where Doug convinced Warlock to absorb Cameron Hodge and his soldier's lifeglow to save his friends, and then to aid Cable and a group of X-Men from William Stryker and his Purifiers. After Bastion systematically eliminated all of the X-Men's teleporters, he encased the entire island of Utopia in an impenetrable dome and, at the center, opened a portal to his original timeline, where Sentinels ruled and mutants and superhumans were outlawed, that poured out wave upon endless wave of Nimrod-Series Sentinels. Doug was sent into the timestream with X-Force and Cable, using Cable's final energy in his time machine, to stop the Master Mold Sentinels that were producing the Nimrods. Cypher was successful in interfacing with the Sentinels and Cable sacrificed his life to return them to their timeline. After the attack from Bastion, the team took a vacation and Illyana sensed that Pixie had been captured. Illyana sent Warlock to warn the X-Men and the rest of the team battled the Inferno Babies, where Doug was placed under the influence of Trista. After being beaten, they were taken to Limbo. Doug was ordered to learn a machine that Trista and the others could not understand and he used it to magically erase her mouth, ending her influence over him. After surviving the attack in Limbo by demons and the Elder Gods, it was revealed that Illyana brought Legion back into the mainstream reality to use against the Elder Gods that General Ulysses and Project Purgatory were planning to unleash. Doug was later asked, by Cyclops, to monitor police feeds around the world for crimes that were above the efforts of the local police, but under the radar of heroes such as the Avengers. | Powers = Omnilingual Translation: has a superhuman facility for translating any languages, spoken or written, human or alien in origin. His superhuman skill also extended to his great facility in deciphering codes and computer languages as well as understanding hidden intentions and body language. Cypher’s skills were such that he was once able to make great headway in translating the written language of an extraterrestrial race in a matter of minutes. Cypher’s mutant talent for translating differed from the translating ability that a human who is a genius in this field, yet not a mutant, possesses, even though both people might achieve the same results with any given translation problem. Cypher’s mutant talent was an intuitive one which worked on a subconscious level, and which may in part by related to telepathy. A non-mutant human, even a genius, would have to work out a translation consciously, step by step. Rather than working the problem out step by step, in his conscious mind, Cypher instead subconsciously solved the problem. Hence, Cypher could reach the correct solution by means that appeared to be leaps of logic, and he himself may not have been consciously aware of the entire process by which he reached the right answer. His recent return from death has abnormally widened his perspective. Everything he sees is now interpreted into information, everything is language to him now. | Abilities = * Training in hand-to-hand combat - Since his resurrection, his language power has extended to combat, making him able to interpret his opponents moves as language. This has vastly in creased his combat effectiveness, to the point where he was able to defeat the rest of the New Mutants by himself. * Gifted intelligence | Strength = Cypher possessed the normal human strength of a young man of his age, height, and build who engaged in regular physical exercise. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = * Warlock also perished a while after Cypher's death, but was resurrected with Ramsey's memories as the mysterious Douglock. | Trivia = | Links = * Marvel Directory * (February 1986) }} Category:Omnilingual Category:Intuitives Category:New Mutants members Category:Hellions members Category:Formerly Deceased Category:X-Men members Category:Utopians Category:Deceased Characters